In The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition, Erik Gøbel offers an account of the well-documented Danish transatlantic slave trade. Denmark was the seventh-largest slave-trading nation with forts and factories on the Gold Coast and a colony in the Virgin Islands. The comprehensive Danish archival material provides the basis for Gøbel’s descriptions of the volume and composition of the slave trade and trade cargoes, as well as the shipping and conditions on board along the Middle Passage. Attention is also paid to the 1791 Danish Slave Trade Commission report and the final decision to abolish the slave trade altogether. *The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolitionis now available in paperback for individual customers.

Abstract.

In the first half of the 19th century, the safeguarding of the health of the enslaved workers became a central concern for plantation owners and colonial administrators in the Danish West Indies. With the end of the slave trade, the longstanding excess mortality in the hardworking enslaved population became a crucial problem for the colony because the slaves could no longer be replaced. This book explores the health conditions of the enslaved workers and the health policies initiated by planters and the colonial government. The investigation reveals that, in a comparative Caribbean perspective, Danish West Indian health policies were often quite unique and efficient, but also that the health of the enslaved was a contested field, showing an ongoing power struggle between the planters, the colonial administration, and the slaves themselves.

15 originale essays om den globale betydning af ophævelsen af den atlantiske slavehandel